This is about survival
by MeredithvL
Summary: The war for the galaxy had many heroes. Their stories, their fights and their life afterwards deserve to be told. Post Mass Effect 3 from various characters - cannon and OC - points of view, except for Shepard. Connected with my story Symphony of grief and hope, but can be read independently. Rated M for language, violence and adult situations. Reviews are greatly appreciated!


**Disclaimer**: I do not own or have any rights to representation of Bioware, EA Games and any other mass media trademarks within this fiction. Characters belong to Bioware. All is represented within the context of private entertainment.

**Notes**: SPOILERS for Mass Effect 3. This story starts on the Battle of the Crucible (let me call it like that, if you played the game you know what I mean) and takes from there, I reject the ending and the star-child, this is more Indoctrination Theory like. It's connected with my other stories but can be read independently. If you're also reading my story **Symphony of grief and hope**, well, this will expand into other characters points of view.

I will update, but not very often.

English is not my first language, I try my best but if you spot grammatical errors please let me know. Also, reviews are greatly appreciated!

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Chapter 1: The monsters and the monsters

_Kaidan Alenko_

The radio was cracking with the sounds of war, the orders, the communications. Kaidan Alenko was leading the Biotics Division through a particularly dangerous field, filled with husks, banshees, cannibals and brutes. They were there to buy time for Hammer, give them the chance to reach the Conduit and from there, the Citadel. Open the Citadel's arms, attach the Crucible, end the war. Hopefully. If the Crucible worked.

He used the power of his will to dispel that though from his mind. He needed to focus, keep his team alive. He had already lost a few operatives, and many others, including himself, had suffered different levels of injuries they were trying to patch with medi-gel.

A large wave was coming to them. He could hear the grating screams of the banshees, the heavy steps of the brutes. He lifted his barriers up, readied his pistol while protected in cover, and checked on his Division. They were all waiting, a faint blue shine dancing on the surface of their skins.

The radio came alive again at that very moment. A voice asked: "_Did we get anyone to the beam?_". The answer came from Major Coats, he recognized his voice when he said: "_Negative. Our entire force was decimated._"

Shepard. Shepard had been in that team, trying to reach the Conduit. The entire force decimated. Shepard was... dead!

"They're incoming, sir," said the urgent, desperate voice of Lieutenant Nyala Boris, a young member of the team. Her voice brought him back to his own critical situation. Perhaps he didn't have to worry about Commander Shepard being dead at all. He might join her soon enough.

"Don't let the banshees get to you!" he ordered to the dozen people still alive on his team. He didn't have any more time to yell orders, because the wave of Reaper's ground forces was already on them. He had to trust his Division to have learned how to fight these enemies.

A banshee reached for him. He landed a well placed reave on it, and then shot the thing until it was close. He sprinted for the next cover. He kept shooting until it's biotic barriers were down, then overloaded the creature. A brute was charging to him. Fan-fucking-tastic. Kaidan found himself almost trapped, because his right side was blocked by debris. He could move back, but the banshee was too close and it could grab him easily.

He heard the sound of a grenade fall before him, near the brute. Alenko glimpsed behind him and saw Corporal Hugo Diaz dodging back to cover. Kaidan finished off the banshee, precisely at the moment that the wounded brute reached him. He ran away to join Diaz, but not before the thing could take down his shields.

The rest of the team was giving hell to the Reaper's forces. A large wave of husks came forward, and soon most of them were floating on the air. He detonated a reave over them and they exploded, pieces of them falling to the ground. More brutes and banshees appeared. More husks. Damn!

He ran to a destroyed ground vehicle, took a few heat sinks and tossed others to his soldiers. He could see the fatigue in their faces, their almost lost hope. What would Shepard do in a situation like this?

"C'mon, people, we can do this!" he yelled, but he didn't believe it. He honestly thought he was a corpse yelling to corpses. Yes, they were going down, he knew it, but they would die fighting. That was what Shepard would have wanted.

Surprisingly, his yell did raise the morale of his team. He saw them fighting with renewed strength, and seeing this young people take up in the air or down to the ground a lot of monsters, lifted part of his own spirit. Kaidan Alenko was responsible for those people. He wouldn't let them die only because his own heart was crushed by the death – for the second time – of the one woman he cared about, the one woman that always refused to be more than his C.O., his guide, his friend. The woman he had loved, and who never loved him back.

He didn't have time to remember Shepard. Another brute was charging to him. He called upon himself the force of his biotic powers, attacked and dodged. From the corner of his eye he could see Operations Chief Susan Gramek blast her own powers on the same creature. A few shoots and it was out of combat. Kaidan didn't have time to celebrate, though, because he was soon surrounded by husks. He fought them with his fists and with the back of his pistol, until he could use his biotics again. Human glowing blue. Piles of dead husks.

He checked on his armor. There were new holes on it, a few shining red. He patched some more medi-gel while protected by cover. Vaguely he became aware that he was very, very hungry. Didn't matter. It'd have to wait.

"_We're regrouping_," came the voice of Anderson through the radio. "_We're getting air support to take down the Reaper on the beam. What's your status, Alenko?_"

"Engaging heavy enemy force, sir," said Kaidan on the radio.

Admiral Anderson said something else. He didn't catch it over the screams of the next group of banshees. Reave. Hunger. Shoots. Fresh heat sink. One of the banshees fell. More screams. The others were pushing close. Banshee lifted a human shape. Banshee dropped a human corpse.

He could hear the other banshees coming for them, for him. He was exhausted but he lifted his barriers once again and got ready to fight, and die.

A big red thing appeared from nowhere at great speed, taking the closest banshee with it. More big things made their way to their position from the left. It took Kaidan two full seconds to understand what was happening. Krogan forces! Some deep growls, some screams, and it was over.

"Human softies," one of the krogan said, but his tone was friendly. "You fine?"

"Yeah," said Kaidan, coming from his cover. He checked on his team. Most were all right, they had some new injuries but nothing fatal. He closed the eyes of the corpse of Lieutenant Nyala Boris.

Major Alenko opened the radio channel to contact Admiral Anderson, and told him:

"We got krogan reinforcements, sir. Didn't catch your last transmission."

"_We're pushing once again for the beam,_" said Anderson. "_Turian forces and the Normandy will try to take down the Reaper. Shepard had some vision and drew some patterns to use the Catalyst._"

"She's... alive?" Kaidan asked. He stopped breathing. He suddenly felt all strength leave his body. A nearby krogan caught him before he collapsed to the ground.

"_Barely,_" replied Anderson. "_She isn't conscious now," _he made a very brief pause."_We need support to reach the beam._"

"On our way, sir," said Kaidan, and gestured for his team. The krogan followed, tacitly accepting his leadership. A part of his mind was surprised by the fact, but the rest of it just didn't have time for questions.

They moved as fast as they could. They found a large group of husks, but the presence of the krogan made it easier to deal with. His Division and himself pulled the husks in various directions, and the krogan finished them off.

They were half way, crossing a land of fallen buildings, when they could see a large group of enemies. They were headed for the no-man's-land right before the beam. Kaidan quickly climbed a high pile of rubble, and he could spot, in the distance, the Alliance's force. Up in the air, amidst the Reapers silhouettes and the fire, he recognized the shape of the Normandy providing support fire. He got alarmed because the ground force advancing to the Conduit was about to be attacked from behind them.

"We need to get them off their asses," said the krogan who had spoken before. He had also climbed the debris and was looking at the same direction. Kaidan assumed he was probably the leader of his task force. "We'll draw their attention. Cover us."

Before Kaidan could reply, the large krogan was running forward and yelling. The rest of the krogan followed, they were probably ten of them. At first they were ignored by the Reaper's forces, but the krogan charged, forced them to stop and engage them.

"Quick!" he said to his team of biotics. "Cover the krogan!"

The group of humans ran, taking position behind debris and fallen walls. It seemed an impossible task that ten or eleven krogan could really take down the large number of enemies ahead. Kaidan refused to even count them, focusing instead on detonating reaves and shooting his pistol while he was waiting for his biotics to recharge. His team was shining blue, using their powers, firing. Buying the krogan group another second to live.

The krogan leader charged against a brute that was charging in his direction. The two massive figures collapsed on each other, dangerous monster hitting with all it's speed another dangerous monster. It was epic, or could have been if the life of the whole galaxy wasn't at stake. The two immense creatures danced, their gigantic arms with claws hitting on each other. There was only one possible outcome for their movements. One of the moles had to hit the ground.

Kaidan concentrated on the hideous brute and launched an overload. The beast lost balance for a fraction of a second. It was enough. The big red krogan finished it off, a triumphant laughter emerging from his huge lips.

A group of marauders emerged from nowhere. They attacked. The big red krogan fell to the ground, gasping. He just hadn't had enough time to react. No one had.

The rest of the krogan charged on the group of marauders, on the other brutes, on the husks and cannibals. There were so many enemies that Kaidan couldn't see straight, he just concentrated on trying to kill anything that wasn't a krogan. He was exhausted, his nose bleeding. It didn't matter. Another explosion, pieces of a banshee falling to the ground. Husks, the first Reaper's force they had to fight back on Eden Prime, three years ago, when the galaxy just didn't know how doomed it was. Marauders that looked like Saren. Just like Saren. More biotic energy coming from his body, more pieces of enemies. More red blood dripping from his nose. It tasted sweet and metallic. More blue shine from the tattered bodies of his team mates. It didn't matter. All those forces weren't on the Alliance, weren't on the soldiers pushing for the beam, for the Citadel and its arms. The Crucible. The Catalyst. Whatever drawing Shepard had made on how to use it.

Shepard. He knew his last thoughts had to be for her. He had no hope of making it, there was no way the few of them could actually stop such a huge force. They were just buying time, stalling them so someone could reach the Citadel. That was the plan. That had been the plan all along.

More Reaper's forces came from the left, and they weren't even done with the ones they were engaging already.

"Sir, it was an honor," said Chief Gramek from Kaidan's right, as she launched a singularity on a group of cannibals.

"Likewise, Chief," replied Kaidan while he exploded the singularity with a reave of his own. He didn't know how many other biotics were alive. He could see a few krogan still kicking asses, others were unmoving masses tossed on the ground.

There were piles of Reaper's forces dead. The small group of krogan and humans had done one hell of a job, but it didn't matter because more forces were coming from everywhere, they were closing the ground between them, they were about to reach...

Everything became red. The air, the ground, the piles of bodies. The living humans and krogan. Kaidan though he was seeing the world through a curtain of his own blood.

And then, silence. There was something missing, like someone had taken a snapshot of reality around him and replaced it with another picture. Just like that. He blinked. The krogan were there, the dead ones still laying on the debris, the living ones frozen in their position, except for their heads that were moving, looking around. His Division was there, or the part that survived of it, cracking with biotic energy, breathing hard, trying to understand. The fires on the distance still were blazing, unconcerned of their pain. But the piles of dead enemy forces were missing. The live Reaper's ground forces charging against them a second ago, were nowhere to be seen. Kaidan held his breath. So, this was what being dead felt like?

Five seconds later, the scene hadn't changed. He scratched his head, surprised that he still needed to do that.

"Sir?" came the voice of Corporal Diaz. He emerged from his cover. "Sir, what happened?"

"I don't know, Corporal," said Kaidan, honestly.

"Are we dead?" the Corporal asked.

Alenko laughed. He couldn't help it, he just laughed as he got up. He scanned the field with his eyes. The group of surviving krogan came to them. He counted the heads approaching him, all looking at him with the same confused look. Five krogan, six humans.

His eyes focused on the distance where the Conduit had been. It was gone. Instead of it, he could see the silhouette of the Normandy, battered and laying on the ground. The Reaper that had been protecting the Conduit was nowhere to be seen.

He looked up, to the sky. He could see the clouds over London, but the shapes of the Reapers were gone. Just gone.

He placed a hand over the shoulder of Hugo Diaz, and smiled.

"No, Hugo, we aren't dead," he said. "I don't know how, but the Crucible worked. We're alive."

Kaidan sat over a pile of rubble, too tired to stay on his feet anymore.

"We... won," he said, almost reluctantly, almost as if saying it would somehow make it untrue. Almost as if pronouncing those words would bring the Reapers back, the husks back, the brutes back. "We won," he repeated.

They were all too tired to cheer.

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**A quick note:** There will be more action, but not on every chapter. However, there isn't a point in the story where there action will stop altogether. You've been warned. :D


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